


when all of our friends are dead

by sepiapages



Series: Light a Match fics [3]
Category: Bandom, Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Death, I'm so sorry, M/M, lots of death yikes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-08
Updated: 2016-07-08
Packaged: 2018-07-22 08:55:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7428316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sepiapages/pseuds/sepiapages
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Their catch had caught up to them. They were alone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	when all of our friends are dead

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Light a Match and All I'll See is You](https://archiveofourown.org/works/4175058) by [PastelMess](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PastelMess/pseuds/PastelMess). 



> I'm so sorry.
> 
> Please please if you're easily triggered by death and loss, don't read this. Otherwise, yeah I was very misty-eyed while writing this and almost cried like three times. Enjoy?

Nothing in life was perfect, but in an old, vine-covered building in the woods somewhere in California, it was pretty damn close. The people there could be called many things—a group, clan, community, alliance—but they called themselves one thing only: a family. Families stuck together and took care of each other. This family had gone through many trials and tragedies throughout their years but they remained strong and alive.

Josh had been a part of the family for many years now. After the war at Brent's facility that was now a smoldering, but regrowing patch in the forest, they hadn't had much excitement.  
  
Life was peaceful and damn near perfect. For a while.   
  
They'd known all along the truth of the matter—the truth of their lives, Josh and Tyler's. But it took many more years and blatant signs for them to finally acknowledge it.   
  
They weren't getting old. They were immortal. While that was convenient for their relationship considering Josh had joined Tyler in this condition, there was a catch: they were alone.   
  
The rest of their family may have been a species other than human, but they aged too. Their bones grew weary, their skin became soft and sagged, their wit, memory, and reflexes deteriorated.   
  
Tyler and Josh could only watch with their young bodies standing like an insult as their friends slowly fell apart in front of them.   
  
The two forever-young lovers cared for their friends and helped them stay comfortable as life wore down on them. They were all nearing their eighties now and they'd seen so much, yet so little. Tyler and Josh hoped with the loss of memory, the family wouldn't have any regrets.   
  
One night, Josh was curled up against Tyler, his clothes bunched in his tight fists.   
  
"What are we going to do?" he whispered, a shaky breath escaping him.   
  
Tyler shook his head and stroked Josh's hair quietly. "I don't know. We... we can't stay."   
  
"What?" Josh sat up and looked at him with a deep frown.   
  
Tyler sighed. "I can't stay here after... after they're gone. It'll be too much. We could go and find somewhere else to live," he said hopefully. "Start over."   
  
Josh continued to stare at him with his eyebrows furrowed. "So we're going to watch them die, and then just _leave?_ How can you say that?"   
  
"We could put them in a home," Tyler spoke carefully. "If they talk about talents, they'll just blame it on dementia."   
  
Tears started creeping into Josh's eyes. "I can't put my friends into a nursing home," he whined, aware that he was only arguing a lost choice. "I-I can't do that. Where would we go?"   
  
"Around the world, if you want," Tyler told him gently. But he sighed and sat up. "This isn't easy for me either, okay? I don't want to hand them off and have them die amongst strangers, but I don't exactly want to bury my friends... my family."   
  
"We already have once," Josh murmured, looking away.   
  
Each of their parents had left and the funerals were hard. Josh was surprised when his siblings contacted him, but no more than Tyler had been to hear from his. They went to both together and clung onto each other for days.   
  
Tyler rubbed a hand over his face. "Okay. So we'll stay. We'll give them the best goddamn funerals anyone could have."   
  
Josh was crying now. He buried his face in Tyler's neck, but agreed. Tyler cried quietly over his shoulder and they fell asleep entangled tightly.

* * *

The first to go was Brendon. Someone no doubt wanted to crack a joke about his assholery catching up to him, but no one did.   
  
Despite the dementia setting in, no one forgot their ties to the tall, wild-haired man and everyone mourned at the funeral. The former match site was turned into their cemetery and the first headstone was put in one cloudy Sunday in October.   
  
Throughout the service, which consisted mostly of quiet gathering and only one small speech from Tyler, Josh, and Dallon, Frank stood near the stone and adorned the area around it with flowers.   
  
By the time they left, the clearing had become a sea of wildflowers.   
  
Josh cried himself to sleep and Tyler retreated to the back of his mind for the next few days. 

* * *

They were in denial still, hoping they would have so much more time with the rest of their family. It was harder as the memories of each other began to leave their minds.   
  
Mikey and Gerard, surprisingly but fittingly, left in quick succession of each other. They were buried beside each other with whispered words of "More than Godspeed be with you."   
  
When Pete left, Josh didn't leave his room for almost two weeks. He barely ate and ran through every memory he could think of over and over in his mind. When he found out Patrick barely remembered "Blonde Guy," he left the building and slept out in the woods for three nights.   
  
One by one, the family shrunk smaller and smaller. It was over the course of almost ten more years, but each loss dug a new hole in their hearts and left them weaker.   
  
Zack, Rian, Alex, Jack, Andy, Gabe, Keegan, Hayley, Soren, Ryan, Joe. Their graves filled the clearing, accompanying the memories of all the good times had there. The layers of flowers grew thick.   
  
Spencer had forgotten why people would come to him, asking to be calmed. He did it anyways. It became only Josh or Tyler, sometimes Dallon, who would ask anyways. When he left, Josh could only pound away at his drums for hours in hopes of driving away the pain.   
  
Lynn, David and Lou joined their family and Josh tried to keep it together for the five of them left, but he couldn't finish speaking at the service. They sat quietly and told Patrick and Frank stories they once held as memories while the sun went down.   
  
When Frank left, they had to find flowers to plant themselves. Tyler almost pointed out there were already so many, but Josh insisted and spent days finding the right flowers and planting them with dirty hands and salty water.   
  
There seemed to be no sunshine when Patrick left. He'd been found wandering into walls and would wake screaming most nights, so deep down they were glad he was at peace finally. And with Pete.   
  
There were no words spoken at his service. Their thoughts went to the clouds above. 

* * *

It was lonely in the large building with only three of them left. They didn't go into the dining hall anymore, only making the trips between their rooms.   
  
Tyler woke to find the bed empty one night. He lay there for a while, staring at the ceiling. Even Blurryface had gone quiet for many months, only appearing if Tyler directly asked for him. His head felt as empty as the building around them but the echoes hurt more.   
  
He got up and noted the early morning hour. He began to walk the halls in search of Josh.   
  
He found him in a corner deep in the building, his head between his knees and his wheezing breaths filling the hall. Tyler sighed and sat down beside the broken man.   
  
He hissed as he tried to put his hand on a shaking shoulder. "You're burning up."   
  
"I'm s-sorry," Josh sobbed. He tried to calm down to lower his temperature. After a few minutes, Tyler was able to wrap his arms around him and press a kiss to his head.   
  
"We're gonna be okay," he whispered. "I promise. We'll get through this."   
  
"I wish those men had killed me that day," Josh cried. "That way I wouldn't have had to lose you all."   
  
Tyler's heart squeezed and he frowned. "No, shh... don't say that. Everything we did was worth it, wasn't it? You can't expect to appreciate sunny days without going through rainy ones."   
  
"Or hurricanes," Josh mumbled, but he didn't say anything more on the thought. He pressed his face into Tyler's shirt. After a while, his shaking stopped and he leaned back against the wall with a heavy sigh. "How's Dallon?"   
  
"I keep thinking he won't go," Tyler admitted almost too quietly to hear. "Maybe... maybe he'll heal himself. And he won't go."   
  
"But he's definitely aged," Josh pointed out. "If anything, maybe he just won't forget."   
  
"I don't know if I hope so or not."   
  
The tired, old men sat in the hallway for a while longer before Tyler stood up and reached his hand out to Josh. "Come on, let's go back to bed." They carried their young bodies to the room and slept past noon the next day. 

* * *

It took many years for them to consider touching the rooms. They couldn't bear the thought of taking the things that once belonged to their family and getting rid of them. They would have taken it all as their own if they had the space.   
  
When Dallon started showing little cuts and bruises and other signs of wear and tear that didn't go away, even Tyler locked himself away and cried. They knew the end was coming.   
  
They finally found themselves standing in the first room. Brendon's. Josh's heart hurt more than he ever thought possible.   
  
"Come on, we can do it," Tyler said, his jaw set. "We'll get everyone's things and burn it all. In their honor."   
  
Josh bit back tears. "No. No no no. We can't. Just leave it. Leave it like they did."   
  
Tyler sighed but he had no energy or urge to fight it. He set the bags down and pulled Josh into his arms. They stood like that for a while, whispering grievances and comforts. Then he picked the bags back up and closed the door for the last time. 

* * *

They found Dallon in his bed, looking peaceful and asleep, with his arm reaching out in front of him. Josh briefly thought of his family and between shaking breaths, he sent prayers that they were together and that he would find the forgiveness he deserved.   
  
Tyler dragged Blurry out of the depths of his mind and forced him to take over as they buried Dallon. He held Josh and they both cried as they planted the flowers around his grave—mostly forget-me-nots and all the herbs they knew that healed.   
  
Even Blurry mourned quietly, standing away from Tyler's conscious and trying to figure out how to deal and what their life would be now. Everything the two had known and gotten used to was gone.   
  
Their catch had caught up to them. They were alone.   
  
Josh was cool that night as the two slept at the edge of the cemetery. When Tyler woke to see the moon high and bright between the trees, he was alarmed to feel how cold Josh was.   
  
He shook him awake and rubbed his hands between his own. "Josh, please. I know it hurts. Goddammit, it hurts me too. It hurts so much. But you have to stay with me. You can't leave! You can't fucking leave me!"   
  
Tyler was in tears, rocking as he continued to shake Josh's hands. Josh took steady breaths and _slowly,_ slowly crawled back up to a temperature that lulled his love—husband, really—back to sleep.   
  
They rose slowly in the morning and crept through the silent halls that were once filled with so much life. They gathered their things, only what they could carry in duffle bags, and locked the door behind them.   
  
Josh slid his palm down the old metal door. "Everything _,_ " he whispered. Tyler knew.   
  
They walked away, hands gripped tightly together, and made their way to the city. They found a little place to stay, worked for a few months, and then got on a plane that flew over the ocean and landed somewhere in another land. They were starting over. But they were together. And they'd never forget their family.

**Author's Note:**

> (Title taken from "skulls" by Bastille aka my babeses. Give it a listen.)


End file.
